Bike Forums - What to train for?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff (Post 11496286)

I have no idea what a weight lifter does. A bike racer does quite a bit of "riding a lot", particularly when in the off season. Intervals are an integral part of training as well, but a newbie racer will find limited use of these (basically the only ones which are important to the newbie are intervals at threshold) until he has the aerobic base under him to support the interval training. Jumping from recreational cycling into heavy interval training is begging for injury and burnout.

Particularly when I was first getting going, I didn't appreciate how important an aerobic base was. It just can't be emphasized enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wens (Post 11497121)

Would you just put rest weeks where you would put peaks instead? Swimming I know would have serious mental and physical burnout if I tried to do go the length of road season without putting a break in the middle somewhere.

If (and this is a big if) you keep training reasonable and varied, and don't do a huge number of races, life will take care of the breaks for you in the first few years; holidays, summer vacation, Etc. That's also assuming you take the advice about rest days. But if I had to nail it down it I'd advise the rest week(s) around the time that you get up two days in a row and feel that getting on the bike is a chore, or you're going to a race not because you want to, but you feel you have to. Or you you do a week where you never feel fresh.

Kinda blasphemy, but racers (reluctantly raises hand) tend to feel the solution to feeling poor mentally or physically is to do the stuff that makes us feel poor a lot more or a lot harder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by badhat (Post 11494378)

i actually still think theres value to peaking/periodizing, even if its not hugely helpful psysiological and its mostly mental. i think its useful to add progressive load, take rest weeks, transition from endurance to super threshold, high volume low intensity to low volume high intensity, taper, if for no other reason than that it makes training more dynamic, and i think for a lot of people, progression through a plan and variety are really useful motivators.

+1
I found this to be true for me as well. Between work, family, life, etc., EVERY DAY there is some good reason to blow off training; being accountable to a 6-month plan made it much easier for me to choose to get on my bike instead of (insert alternative). Maybe this is more characteristic of us older beginning racers who have a lot of other things going on in our lives? My first season racing, I made a plan in January to peak for a stage race in June (as much because I had to schedule vacation days as for any other reason), and had my best results of the year at that race, so peaking even as a beginner isn't always totally pointless...